The Great British Sewing Fiasco

You may be interested to know that - deep breath - I'm making a dress. With a pattern and everything.

Call it the Sewing Bee effect, call it necessity... You see, I love these dresses and smocks and tunics. But I'm currently a Girl of Slender Means. I'm also one of those people who pictures something specific in their head then goes out looking (unsuccessfully, because it only exists in my imagination) for it in the shops.

The path thus far has not been a smooth one. I started out by purchasing a pattern for a very simple dress. Size Medium. I then carefully cut the pattern out. It didn't look like a Medium to me. Not by any stretch of the imagination (or the material). I decided to be cautious and not cut into my lovely new fabric (a dark indigo, lightweight denim) but instead to cut up an old sheet. Not a vintage sheet, don't worry.

Having cut and pinned the thing together it looked decidedly petite. Wide at the shoulders and bust, narrow at the waist, and no room for those things we women have called hips. It looked, hanging up, like an upside-down triangle. Like the sketches fashion designers make. I'm pretty sure the only person with a body shape like that is Barbie.

Disappointed but relieved at having saved my fabric, I measured myself. Size 12 (or thereabouts) in off-the-peg clothing bears no relation to a size 12 in Planet Dressmaking. Or Planet Butterick, anyway.

So a week or so later I went to the dressmaking department at John Lewis. It was a bit of a journey through a lot of traffic. I bought a different pattern (Simplicity this time, in a bigger size) for a tunic along with some different fabric: a 'busy' floral to hide the inevitable first-timer mistakes. The assistant talked me through the whole process. She explained the pattern, what I needed to do and how much material was required.

On Sunday afternoon I lay the pattern pieces out as per the instructions. There wasn't enough fabric. It was literally a few inches too short. I was mortified. I had plenty of spare but only in long, useless strips. I phoned John Lewis and explained. It can't have been down to me having washed it (having only used a cool cycle on 100% cotton fabric). To be fair they said they'd post me an extra half-metre free of charge so I could cut the last piece and get cracking. It looks as though the pattern's wrong and has underestimated how much material is needed. The fact that it spells 'sleeve', 'sleve' doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either.

Anyway, now I'm waiting for a parcel to arrive. 

Fortunately I'm a stubborn Taurean type who, more often than not, refuses to lose heart because of a few setbacks.

If this tunic ever does get made (I haven't even got to the hard part, i.e. sewing, yet) I'm going to put it on and go and buy myself a bottle of something fizzy and celebratory and quite possibly spill it down my front and not care.